Keke Palmer stars in a new buddy-comedy that has already received critical acclaim
Keke Palmer is back in the limelight on the big screen with her latest comedy flick. The 31-year-old actress is sharing the spotlight with songstress SZA in the new film One of Them Days, which hit cinemas today.
The movie revolves around besties and flatmates Dreux (Palmer) and Alyssa (SZA), who are in a pickle after Alyssa’s beau blows their rent money. Audiences will be in stitches as they watch the pair hilariously scramble to gather cash to dodge eviction.
The comedy has already charmed US audiences since its January release, snagging a whopping 95 per cent rating from Rotten Tomatoes critics.
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But it’s not all laughs; the film delves deeper, with Palmer portraying Dreux as someone “dealing with the circumstances she has growing up in the environment she’s in.”
Speaking to Teen Vogue, she said Dreux’s battles are “very systemic, the lineage of trying to get out of poverty, and I feel like she’s somebody that wants to break that cycle.”
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Palmer, born Lauren Keyana Palmer, hasn’t slowed down recently. In 2022, she featured in Jordan Peele’s third cinematic offering Nope, alongside Oscar-winner Daniel Kaluuya.
The horror flick sees them play siblings, uncovering a creepy threat in the skies. Palmer has opened up about the part, noting how it pushed her boundaries as a female lead.
She told Teen Vogue: “[…] With Nope, my opportunity to do comedy there, but then also action and drama and in the end being able to slay the dragon, I felt like that was such a great opportunity for people to allow women to have characters that are really only usually given to men.”
Other recent films from the actress include the strip-club comedy Hustlers and the 2022 crime drama Alice.
Beyond her on-screen achievements, Palmer celebrated a personal milestone in February 2023 with the birth of her first child, Leodis Andrellton Jackson.
In December 2022, the former child star shared her pregnancy news on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, where she took on hosting duties alongside musical guest SZA.
During her monologue, a traditional part of the comedy show, she revealed her baby bump to “set the record straight” about the swirling pregnancy rumours.
Palmer later discussed her choice to go public with her pregnancy in Vanity Fair. “I knew it was going to be a thing to try and hide it-people were already commenting on it,” she said.
“I didn’t really know how to address it. It just felt like it was never the right time, and having a child is so private. But I felt like I should probably let people know. You need a certain level of physicality to do SNL. It was so much fun to say it during my monologue. That’s something my kid can have forever,” she reflected.
The Illinois-born actress caused quite a stir on social media in July 2023. She went viral after a video of her at Usher’s Vegas Residency concert started doing the rounds on Twitter.
The clip shows the R&B legend serenading Palmer, who was clad in a sheer black dress over a black bodysuit. This sparked her then-beau Darius Jackson to publicly criticise her.
“It’s the outfit tho..you a mom,” he tweeted, which led to a wave of backlash from fans defending Palmer and berating Jackson for his “insecurity.”
The fitness instructor, who has a son with Palmer, stood his ground and fired off another tweet. “We live in a generation where a man of the family doesn’t want the wife and mother to his kids to showcase booty cheeks to please others and he gets told how much of a hater he is,” he wrote.
“This is my family and my representation. I have standards and morals to what I believe. I rest my case,” concluded Jackson.
Following the controversy, The Cut asked Palmer about her mindset after the backlash.
She replied, discussing her newfound confidence since becoming a mother: “After having my baby, I’ve just gotten so much more powerful.”
The TV star confessed: “I’ll be honest, I think before I even had the baby, I was really actually quite self-conscious. In a way that you would expect, considering the kind of work that I do as a public figure – always trying to be on point with my body and always trying to make sure I’m taking care of this and that. There’s a lot of physical attention.”
Palmer recalled a reassuring conversation she had with her personal trainer, who told her: “We are never going to try and get your body back to how it was before a baby because you birthed a child.”
Instead, the trainer encouraged her to love her new figure.
“I’m just continuing to spread my wings as a young woman. My headspace is just to continue to inspire and encourage myself and anybody else who wants to go down that road with me,” she went on to share.
Palmer and the baby’s father, Jackson, have since parted ways.
One of Them Days is out in cinemas now.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
